


Calamintha nepeta

by kaerstyne



Category: Original Work
Genre: Cats, F/F, High Fantasy, Human-Cat Bodyswap, Infiltration Mission, Magic, Magical Artifacts, Pre-Relationship, Royal Politics, Some Light Thievery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:55:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27458350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaerstyne/pseuds/kaerstyne
Summary: Andriana Lightwind, magical grad student extraordinaire, has a plan to get some alone time with one of the university's restricted artifacts. But she's not at all prepared for what happens when her plan is successful.
Relationships: Queen/Sorceress who infiltrates her kingdom as a cat
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14
Collections: Femslash Exchange 2020





	Calamintha nepeta

**Author's Note:**

  * For [maraudersaffair](https://archiveofourown.org/users/maraudersaffair/gifts).



Everything _would_ have gone off without a hitch.

Andry had planned it all perfectly. She'd spied on the night librarian for days to figure out his routine, and when she knew he was on the other side of the library from the restricted section, she'd acted quickly. Five seconds to get in with her not-quite-legal teleport stone, twenty seconds to draw the ward glyph she'd secretly copied earlier in the week and open the door, thirty seconds to grab the Amulet of Tinasra from the second cabinet on the left, and five seconds to teleport back out. Just one minute, and the amulet was hers with the librarian none the wiser.

She'd do the same thing tomorrow to put it back, and no one would ever have to know.

She'd pulled it off exactly as planned and triumphantly returned to her off-campus apartment, ready to go over the amulet with every spell she had. Tinasra had been one of the most prestigious sorcerers in the history of transmutation, and her amulet had to do _something_. Maybe it was hubris for Andry to think a sixth-year student stood a chance of figuring it out when no one else at the university had, but that wasn't going to stop her from trying. She'd really just wanted a chance to study it properly without her professors breathing down her neck. Really.

She had been completely unprepared for the person who'd teleported into her living room five minutes after her return.

Andry was so surprised by the sudden arrival—her alarm wards hadn't even gone off!—that it took her a few seconds too long to realize the intruder was reaching for the amulet on the table. She lunged and managed to grab them by the arm, but the weight in her hand vanished instantly as the intruder phased through her to the other side of the table. They snatched up the amulet, held it up to their hooded face as if inspecting it, and then with a single sharp cackle pivoted around to face her.

There was a yowl as Andry's familiar, Zephyr, leaped down from a bookshelf directly onto the figure's head, claws out. Andry took advantage of the distraction to start reciting the highest-level binding spell she knew, as fast as she could enunciate the words. She was most of the way through it, only a few syllables left, when the intruder managed to fling Zephyr off and lurch forward to jab Andry hard in the chest.

She fell to one knee, gasping for breath, as the intruder loomed above her. Even at this angle she couldn't see any of their face beneath their dark hooded cloak. They raised their hand holding the amulet, one finger extended to point at Andry, and she tried desperately to brace herself for whatever spell they were about to do.

The figure's hand moved to point to Zephyr on the floor a few meters away, and then they started speaking in a language Andry didn't recognize. Some kind of proto-Elven, maybe? The words were swift and smooth, and the emerald on the amulet flashed in response, and then the room was spinning in every direction.

She didn't know how long it took her to recover, but by the time she could see straight again, the figure and the amulet were gone, and everything about her body felt wrong.

* * *

<So let's recap,> Zephyr said in her head, mouth twisting unhappily.

Andry groaned, which in her current state came out as more of a growl. <I know what happened, Zephyr, you don't need to spell it out for me.>

<No no, I think I do. You used illegal spells to steal a massively powerful magic artifact from the university library, and then not five minutes later some weirdo broke into our apartment—with another very illegal spell, I might add—knocked us both down, snatched said massively powerful magic artifact, somehow _used_ it even though no one knows how to use it, and then ran off into the night with it.>

<I mean, silver lining: at least now we know what the amulet does?>

<Really hard to see much of a silver lining with how _incredibly_ screwed we are right now! Especially since what it did was _swap our bodies_ , so now you can't even get us out of this because you're a cat!>

<Look,> Andry said, staring up at her own face, <I can totally get us out of this even when I'm a cat. Everything with be fine.>

Zephyr made a noise that sounded like it might have been a groan if she had the handle of using a human throat, which she did not. <You can't use spells. You can't talk to anyone except me and other cats. You're like twenty centimeters tall. What exactly are you planning to do?>

<I'll figure something out, I swear.> She squinted at the clock over Zephyr's—her own—shoulder and could only vaguely make out a 5. <Um. Tomorrow.>

Zephyr made another noise that sounded much more like a human groan, which Andry thought was probably their best accomplishment of the night, all things considered.

* * *

<So,> Andry said the next morning, <I have an idea. Or half an idea, at least.>

Zephyr glared at her blearily; she'd spent the last five minutes complaining about how she'd slept badly because human sleeping positions were all terrible. 

<We don't know enough about _that asshole_ to track them, but we can probably track the amulet. An artifact that powerful has to put out some kind of trace magical energy.>

Zephyr considered that for a moment. <You know, now that you mention it, it did kind of smell. Like mandrake root, but sneezier.>

Andry tried to frown before she remembered cat faces didn't work like that. <What do you mean it smelled? I didn't smell anything.>

<You're not a cat. We smell everything, even magic. Why do you think so many sorcerers want us as familiars?>

<Honestly, I just thought it was because you're small and cute.>

<We're small and cute _and_ really good at smelling magic.> Zephyr grinned, showing off her decidedly flat human teeth. 

<Hmmm.> Andry thwapped her tail on the floor behind her as she thought. <If you have a good sense of what the energy signature smelled like, that would probably work as the focus for the tracking spell, but you'd have to be the one to cast it.> She paused. <Actually, you'd have to be the one to cast it anyway, I can only cast familiar spells when I'm in this body.>

<The problem is that sorcerer spells require talking. I do not know how to talk in this body, your mouth doesn't have the right kind of teeth in it.>

<Well, lucky for you I still have my old enunciation exercise books from when I was a first-year.>

It took them two hours and a lot of practicing mouth shapes in front of a mirror, but eventually Zephyr could pronounce the words for the tracking spell to Andry's satisfaction. With that prerequisite complete, the two of them sat at the kitchen table with a scrying crystal and a map.

<Right,> Andry said. <So tracking is a pretty easy spell. All you do is concentrate on the focus—what the amulet smelled like—and say the words clearly, like we practiced.>

Zephyr's ears twitched—she was already better at doing that with human ears than Andry ever had been. She stared down at the items intently, then carefully said the words for the spell out loud. The crystal began to glow with a magical light, and then started spinning in circles around the map. After a few seconds, it came to stop, pointing to a spot in the northwest.

<Hey, it worked.> Zephyr sounded pleased with herself.

<It did! You did a great job.> Andry climbed up on to the table to see the map better; it was much harder to read the small print with cat eyesight. <That spot doesn't look like it's in university territory.>

<No, it's in Celetheren next door. Not that far from the border, though.> Zephyr squinted. <Actually, if your map is right, the amulet is in the royal palace.>

<Oh no, you don't think the thief was some kind of spy or something, do you? Trying to steal university artifacts so they can, I don't know, take over the territory?>

<I don't know what they'd want to do that for, Celetheren and the university have happily co-existed since...well, always. There's a lot of reasons the amulet could be there. We probably have to go there ourselves to find out any more.>

Andry growled in annoyance. <They don't just let random people into the royal palace to snoop around. We'd have to sneak in, or pretend we're official representatives of the university, or something.>

<There's no way they'd believe that. The university doesn't send students to do official business, and any kind of study program would be coordinated in advance. Besides,> Zephyr waved at her body, <I don't think I'd be very good at lying in this state.>

<True. But now that you mention it, I'm a cat now. I bet I could sneak in as a cat.>

<In theory they could have some kind of security against shapeshifters, but you're right, it would probably be easier than trying to get in as a person.> Zephyr brightened. <Oh, and if we use the familiar bonding spell, I could follow along mentally and see what you're doing. I've always wondered what that spell was like from the other side.>

<Ooh, that's a great idea.> Andry jumped off the table into Zephyr's lap. <Okay, so we'll cast that spell—it's harder than the tracking spell but not too hard, I'll show you—and then I'll sneak in and scout out the place so we can try to see what's going on. And then we can figure it out from there?>

<It's not the worst plan I've ever heard.>

* * *

Getting to the palace in the first place had seemed daunting at first—it would have been about half a day's walk as a human, but as a cat Andry was much slower when not running at full speed. However, there were a fair number of trade wagons traveling the roads, and it turned out that some of them were more than happy to have a friendly cat along for part of their journey. She just hopped up on a passing wagon headed in the right direction, put on her best cute cat face, and away they went.

Andry had never seen the palace herself before, only pictures in her textbooks, and when it finally came into view, she realized the pictures couldn't do it justice. It was all cresting towers and delicate archways, with faint magical glows on the windows illuminating the greenery artfully hanging along the walls. There were no walls around the outside, just a peaceful moat surrounding the complex that ended in two low waterfalls framing the entrance, but she could feel the tingle of magic coming from the water. The moat seemed to be serving as a protective circle; she would never get the scent of oak out of her nose if she stayed around it for too long.

To be on the safe side, she left the front seat of the wagon as they approached the guard towers on the other side of the bridge, and hid in one of the cargo containers in the back. Luckily, the guards didn't seem to be doing thorough searches of everyone coming in, and she was able to ride in without incident. Once inside, she jumped down from the moving wagon and headed for an area that looked like a courtyard.

It was, in fact, a courtyard—an absolutely huge one that seemed to be a central hub for this part of the palace. Tall archways led inside the build, and decorative windows lined all of its walls. Andry could hear—and smell—clear signs of where people were gathered, and followed them through the various archways until a throng of people blocked her path. They were gathered around an ornately carved doorway that stretched all the way up to the ceiling, and a person wearing very official-looking clothing was keeping everyone from going inside at once.

Andry paused in a corner of the hallway and tried to peer inside. <I can't see anything with all these people in the way.>

<You don't need to see things,> Zephyr said, <you just smell them. Sneak in along the edges of the crowd and try to smell the amulet's magic lingering on someone.>

Andry started doing just that, carefully weaving through the shadows between people's legs and sniffing at everyone. <What did you say it smelled like? Mandrake root?>

<Similar to that, at least. And it'll be strong, like the moat was, so you should be able to pick it out pretty easily.>

She ducked behind a pillar and squinted toward the front of the room. <Hey, is that the queen?>

A woman was seated in the large throne at the front of the room, with several other people—presumably advisors—sitting beside her. The queen had the dark skin and hair Andry associated with the western elves, but she couldn't make out any of her features from this distance, just that she looked regal and imposing. She darted to the next pillar, and the next, and then stopped as she caught a whiff of something. <Zephyr, is that the smell?>

<Yes! Where's that coming from?>

<I think it's those people over there.> Andry looked at four people standing before the throne speaking to the queen, and carefully walked around a few guards to reach the pillar closest to them.

They were elves as well, though they looked like they were from one of the southern kingdoms. Two of them were dressed like merchants, while the other two wore sorcerer robes. She sniffed the air again. <It's one of those two sorcerers for sure.>

<What are they saying? I can't hear that well.>

<It's really loud in here, I've been trying to tune everything out to save your poor sensitive kitty ears.> She turned her ears toward the group. <Ugh, they're speaking Elven. I was never good at Elven.>

<Can you get any of it?>

<Uh.> Andry concentrated and tried to remember her grammar lessons.

"...We do hope you've had time to consider our offer, Your Majesty," one of the merchant-looking elves was saying. "We would love to continue working closely with Celetheren in future."

"I still do not understand why you're coming to me with this offer now," the queen said. She did not sound pleased. "Celetheren has had a perfectly amicable relationship with Aorlind for years, and King Andhil indicated in our last correspondence that he'd be more than happy to continue things as they are."

"I'm sure King Andhil didn't want to trouble you so soon after the royal funeral, Your Majesty, but a change in leadership can be a good time to consider changes in policy, can it not?"

<What's he talking about?> Andry whispered.

<Queen Vivilene Moonstrider II of Celetheren passed away a few months ago,> Zephyr replied. <It was a total shock to everyone, they were talking about it for weeks. Do you not read the news at all?>

<I've been busy with my thesis, you know that!> Andry could almost hear Zephyr rolling her eyes at the other end of the mental bond. <So who's this queen, then?>

<Her daughter, Vivilene Moonstrider III. She's much younger and no one expected her to take the throne so soon. Not surprising some of the other kingdoms are trying to take a go at her, really.>

<Rude.> The queen and the other elf were still talking back and forth, but it was mostly just more of the same. Andry stopped listening quite so hard and turned her attention to the queen. This close, it was easier to see the silver crown on her head, along with her high cheekbones, and the way the curls of her hair fell around her face. <Hey, is it just me or is she really pretty? Like, _really_ pretty.>

<Andry. Focus.>

<I'm just saying, if she wasn't a queen and I wasn't currently a cat, I would let her do so many things to me.>

< _Andry_.>

<Fine, fine.> The four elves finished talking with the queen and turned away to leave. <I'm going to follow these guys and see what else I can find out about what they're doing here.>

* * *

Being queen was more tiring than Vivilene had anticipated.

She'd known it would be difficult, of course; her mother had never let her think for a moment that it would be anything else. But they'd both expected that Vivilene would be older when she took the throne, and that her mother would be there to guide her through the early phase of her rule. The possibility that her mother would suddenly pass away when she was still a mere 50—practically a child by elven standards—had hardly crossed their minds.

Vivilene would know better than to make such a foolish assumption, when it was her turn to raise an heir.

Her mother and her grandmother had both been wise, powerful queens respected by the neighboring kingdoms, but Vivilene had yet to earn the same respect for herself. Without her mother backing her, those same kingdoms were now eagerly probing her for any weaknesses they could use to undermine Celetheren's political position. It was like being hounded by a pack of wolves, waiting for the slightest misstep they could pounce on.

It had been six months since Vivilene taken the throne, and she didn't think she'd made any missteps yet. But she was so very tired of outpacing wolves.

At least she still had her mother's gardens. She hadn't been able to enter them at all the first few weeks after the funeral, the memories still too raw, but now it was a great comfort to slip away to the gardens at night and take solace in the beauty her mother had left behind. Her favorite was the Night Garden—it was small and out of the way, far from the central hustle and bustle of the court, but she'd always found it the most beautiful. The plants had all been carefully selected to respond to moonlight, and at night the whole garden gleamed with an ethereal silver glow. As a child she'd called it the Moonstrider Garden, after their family, and her mother had laughed and told her she wasn't wrong.

The garden was just as beautiful now, but it wasn't quite the same without that laugh.

Vivilene sighed and settled down on a bench by one of the hedge walls. She didn't have time to wallow in grief now; she had to figure out what to do about that pesky delegation from Aorlind, the latest of the wolves at her door. The king himself had never been anything but cordial to her, and seemed genuinely uninterested in scrounging more power for himself at her expense, but his underlings were another story. This group clearly had ulterior motives of some sort, but she hadn't been able to figure out what exactly they were up to.

"Maybe I should just set the spymaster on them," she mused aloud. "Diplomacy certainly hasn't worked so far to pry their motives out of them."

There was a startled cry from the bush next to her bench, and a small creature of some sort leaped out of it.

Vivilene glanced down in surprise at the black cat now standing on the pathway, looking up at her with wide eyes and twitching ears. "Hello, friend," she said. "We seem to have surprised each other."

The cat continued staring at her. She wondered where it had come from; the wards around the palace to keep out unauthorized guests usually kept stray animals away as well. This cat looked too healthy to be a true stray; it was sleek and well-fed, and its eyes were a gorgeous silver that went together perfectly with the shimmering flowers around them. "Are you lost, little cat? I haven't seen you around the palace before."

There was a long pause, and then the cat blinked once and walked forward to nudge at her leg. She chuckled and reached down to gently pet the top of its head. "Well, I do apologize for startling you. It seems we both thought we were quite alone out here."

The cat meowed in what she assumed was agreement and nuzzled at her hand for another moment. Then it pulled away and scampered off as quickly as it had arrived, back toward the palace proper.

It probably belonged to someone who lived in the palace, and had simply wandered farther than it was used to. She would ask the night guards if they'd seen it around before; she didn't want to think a creature so in tune with her garden had any dark intentions towards her, but best to be sure.

* * *

<Andry,> Zephyr hissed at her as soon as she left the garden. <Andry, where did you go? The connection cut out.>

<Sorry! I followed the queen into one of the gardens, and it has some kind of special ward on it. I guess it blocked our bond.>

<Interesting. Is there something important in there?>

<It was just a really nice garden, mostly. And the queen was there, by herself.> Andry thought back to what she'd seen when she first entered the garden. <It sounded like she was thinking about some royal task, and she looked sad. It must be rough, to have your mom die and then suddenly become queen.>

<It's not exactly an easy job to begin with, either.>

<Yeah.> Andry turned her head back toward the garden entrance, trying to see if she could still make out the queen's figure from this distance. 

< You do remember why we're here, don't you? You're supposed to be looking for the amulet.>

<I already tried following that Aorlind guy and I couldn't get into his room! I'll go there again tomorrow when he isn't around, I don't think I can do anything else about him tonight.>

<I don't have a crush on the queen!>

* * *

Andry did go back to the Aorlind delegation's guest suite at the palace the next day, and this time managed to find a window with a loose enough lock that a motivated cat could squeeze through. Once inside, however, it quickly became clear that the amulet wasn't there. It obviously had been at once point—its scent lingered in the air in one of the rooms—but the sorcerer must have taken it with him somewhere.

She tried following the scent trail after it left the room, but it wound its way through dozens of corridors, many of them covered in their own strong smells. She spent the whole day tracking it all over the palace, but never saw hide nor hair of the sorcerer or the amulet.

<This is ridiculous,> she grumbled. <What was he doing, taking the thing on a tour?>

<He might have been looking for something he could use,> Zephyr offered. <Like a good ambush spot, or a secret passage.>

<Well maybe he found one, because I have no idea where he went.> She sighed and scratched at her ear with one paw. <I can try again tomorrow, I guess, he can't hide forever.>

<So now what?>

<Now I'm going back to that garden from last night to see if the queen shows up again.>

<Look, if she goes there regularly maybe I can find a way to talk to her, or something. We could try to get her help.>

<It's not out of the question, I suppose. Just be careful, since our connection will probably cut out again.>

* * *

The garden really was something to behold. Andry was no expert at landscaping or flower arranging or whatever you'd call it, but even she could tell that someone had put a lot of time and care into this place. The white flowers almost looked like they'd been imbued with some kind of magic to make them glow, but she'd given them a good sniff last time and not smelled any magic at all. It was just something about the way they caught the moonlight and reflected off one another, like they were all working together to light up the night. The effect gave the garden a mysterious but peaceful feel, and if the queen really did come out here regularly, she could certainly see why.

Her body tingled as she passed through the archway at the entrance, and she felt Zephyr's presence disappear from the back of her mind. She wondered if the spell was like a privacy curtain of some sort; she'd heard of nobles hiring sorcerers to cast wards like this on their homes, to prevent telepathic spying. She didn't think most sorcerers would bother wasting high-level telepathy spells just to spy on random rich people, but it was probably a good idea for a queen.

And just as Andry thought of the queen, she turned a corner and saw her in the flesh, sitting on the same bench as last time. She was staring off into the garden with a distant expression, like she was far away in her own thoughts. Andry trotted toward her until she was a meter or so away, then tried to meow the way Zephyr did when she wanted attention.

The queen blinked and shook herself a bit, then turned toward her. "Oh, hello again. I wondered if you might come back."

Taking that as encouragement, Andry closed the remaining distance between them and rubbed against her leg in what she hoped was a friendly fashion. She'd thought she knew a lot about cat behavior after having Zephyr for so long, but actually acting everything out herself was a bit tricky.

The queen seemed to take it well, at least; she smiled and reached a hand down for Andry to sniff. "You know, I asked around if anyone living at the palace had a black cat, but no one could recall anything. Did you come with one of the new foreign delegations, perhaps?"

It was a fair question, but Andry couldn't exactly answer it. So she just cocked her head to the side and meowed again.

The queen chuckled. "You can't tell me, I know. My court sorcerer has quite the knack for speaking with animals, but I'm afraid I've never mastered that sort of magic myself. Still," she added, patting the bench next to her, "you're welcome to sit with me, if you can forgive my inability to speak Cat."

Andry wasn't about to turn down an invitation like that. She hopped up onto the bench and sat down, making sure she was within arm's reach for petting.

"Well, you certainly seem friendly enough." The queen gently extended a hand to scratch one of her ears. "I'm not sure if you can actually understand me or if I'm just talking to myself, but I think it's more fun to pretend you can."

Not being able to respond to anything she said was _torture_. Andry wasn't exactly a quiet person under normal circumstances, and not being able to reply to someone talking directly to her just felt bizarre. She really wished she were back in her normal body.

Of course, if she were in her normal body she never would have been talking to a queen in the first place. And definitely wouldn't have been getting ear scritches from one. So there was that.

She tilted her head into the scritches and purred a little. The queen smiled down at her in response, clearly pleased. The smile was soft, but still in a way that transformed her entire face, and the way the corners of her eyes crinkled was downright adorable. It was the complete opposite of the stern expression she'd had in the throne room the other day, and Andry found herself wondering how many people got to see her like this.

Okay, maybe she had a _little_ bit of a crush.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, the queen stroking her fur, before she eventually spoke up again. "It's nice to have some company for a change. I've been coming out here at night to get away from everything happening in the palace, but it does feel a bit lonely sometimes." Her voice sounded wistful. "Since I took the throne, really. There are members of the court I've been friends with for decades, but it's been difficult to reconcile those relationships with the fact that they all work for me now, instead of my mother."

That made a lot of sense; it was probably an awkward position to be in. Andry pressed her head into the queen's hand and purred louder in an effort to be encouraging.

A light breeze blew in from the back of the garden, ruffling Andry's fur, and something in the air tickled her nose. She sneezed and rubbed at her face with a paw. The flowers back there must have been a different type, because the smell was different, almost like—

—mandrake root, but sneezier.

She stood up, ears flicking to the side. That was definitely the amulet. What was it doing in the garden? Could the sorcerer have followed her out here?

The queen, who had been in the middle of saying something else, stopped and glanced at her when she shifted position. "Is something the matter, friend?"

Andry climbed up to the back of the bench and peered out into the darkness. Even with her excellent cat night vision, though, she couldn't see anything amiss—just flowers and hedges and all the normal things you'd expect in a garden. The smell was faint, fainter than it should have been if the amulet was really that close by. Where had it come from?

There was a crunching sound, like someone stepping on gravel. She whirled to face the direction it had come from, but still couldn't see anything. The queen had evidently heard it too, because she turned in the same direction, her mouth twisting into a frown.

"Sometimes, of late," she said, slowly, "I've felt as if someone else was out here watching me."

That couldn't be a good sign. Andry hissed at the seemingly empty garden, more on principle than because she thought it would actually do anything. She was going to bite that stupid sorcerer when she found him. Both for all the mess he'd caused, and for ruining her nice moment with the queen.

The queen gave a little sigh and stood up. "Well, friend," she said, smoothing out her dress, "it's a shame, but I think it would be better for me to go back inside for the night."

Andry dropped back down to the bench and lightly headbutted her side. The queen gave her one last ear scritch, flashed another of those soft smiles, and headed off along the path back to the central building.

Stupid, stupid sorcerer.

* * *

When Vivilene entered the garden the next night, she was delighted to see that not only had the cat returned, it had grown even bolder; it was curled up on Vivilene's usual bench, facing the entrance as though waiting for her.

She approached slowly, not wanting to alarm it, and sat down on the opposite end of the bench. "Hello, friend. It's nice to see you here again."

The cat mewled and rose to its feet, padding toward her. Its ears were alert, turned toward the rest of the garden as though listening for intruders. Sensible, after what had happened last time. She offered a hand for it to sniff, and it responded by shoving its head directly into her palm for petting. She stifled a laugh; they were dispensing with the formalities now, apparently.

"I do hope you had a better day than I did," she said. "A new foreign delegation arrived today, from the kingdom of Esperia in the south. They're not particularly friendly; their queen never got along with my mother, but she needs to maintain trade with us in order to—"

She stopped as she saw the cat's ears perk up. "What is it?"

There was a faint rustle in one of the bushes across the path, and as Vivilene turned to look, a figure lunged out of the shadows toward her.

She sprung to her feet, reaching for the protection emblem around her neck, but before she could activate it, the cat flung itself from the bench with an ear-splitting yowl and charged at the figure. Whoever it was swore in Elven and tried to kick the cat away, but it dodged to the side and then pounced on to the attacker's leg, teeth sinking into flesh.

The cat's war cry had probably alerted the guards, but Vivilene squeezed her emblem just to be sure, triggering the alarm in the palace and activating a defensive barrier around herself. "Friend cat!" she called. "To me!"

The figure and the cat both turned to look at her; the figure remembered themself first and tried to grab the cat, but it released their leg and darted back toward Vivilene. As it neared, she reached down and scooped it up, bringing it inside the barrier with her, then took off running toward the palace.

The attacker swore again behind her and started chanting something, but she ignored them; her emblem was a national heirloom imbued with some of the finest magic Celetheren had to offer, and it was highly unlikely an intruder like this would be powerful enough to break through its barrier. Besides which, she could see the light of the guards' lanterns moving closer from the palace door, meaning they would arrive soon enough.

A burst of energy flew past her ear, deflected by the barrier, and another struck her back. She stumbled for a moment, the scent of iron and pine from the spell filling her nostrils, but the barrier absorbed the energy before it could do her any harm. She spared a glance back at the attacker, who seemed to be gearing up for another spell, then clutched the cat closer to her chest and kept running.

"Your Majesty!" Two blooms of lantern light appeared in the distance in front of her, though she couldn't make out the guards themselves in the darkness. "Your Majesty, are you all right?"

"There's an intruder!" she called back. "A mage, behind me!"

Another energy burst bounced off her barrier and crashed into the ground, as if to punctuate her statement. One of the guards shouted, and the lights headed toward her even faster. After a moment the guards came into sight—it was Minhel and Delia, who she remembered were two of the senior knights on duty tonight. As she finally reached them, Minhel kept charging forward to engage the attacker, and Delia stayed with Vivilene, looking over her worriedly. "Are you all right, ma'am?"

"Yes," she said, panting, "more surprised than anything. I'm glad to see you two."

Delia nodded. "Let's get you to the royal chambers while we apprehend this intruder." She glanced down to Vivilene's chest, where she was still clutching the cat. "Ah, is that the cat you've been asking about?"

"Yes. It will be staying with me."

"Very well, let's head inside, then."

* * *

Delia swiftly escorted them to Vivilene's private wing and its additional protection wards. Vivilene had her wait outside; she had something she wanted to attend to while they were waiting for news.

The cat squirmed in her grip, apparently not pleased with being carried now that the immediate danger was past. That, or her suspicions were correct, and it had an inkling of what she was planning to do. Regardless, she held it firmly against her chest until she reached the desk in her study, and the arcane disc she'd had Kalise prepare for her.

"Well, friend cat," she said, "while I appreciate your help tonight, and your company on previous nights, there is something I need to confirm before this can continue."

She activated the sigil in the center of the disc, and the rest of the inscriptions lit up with blue light, spiraling outward along the disc. Once that was complete, she carefully set the cat down on the disc.

"You see," she continued, casually, "as I mentioned before, I've been asking around the palace about you. As much as I'd like to believe you're simply a stray cat that managed to wander into my garden, it wouldn't be the first time I've heard of someone using a shapeshifter to infiltrate a political rival's territory, and one can't be too careful."

The cat's eyes were wide, and it made a somewhat garbled noise in its throat, but it didn't move from the disc. Or couldn't, rather.

"So, you can imagine my concern when I discover that no one has ever noticed a black cat in the palace until a few days ago, when one was seen exiting a merchant wagon in the courtyard, and later noticed skulking around in my throne room. And then that same cat appears in my favorite garden at night, when I'm there alone, right around the same time I'm being targeted by a mysterious attacker."

The cat just made another odd noise and kept staring at her.

"And thus, I had my court sorcerer prepare this device, which should allow us to speak. Assuming, of course, that I'm correct, and you aren't a stray cat at all, but a second mage who has entered my palace with some ulterior motive of your own."

The cat opened its mouth, and this time an entirely different voice came out—a woman, speaking Common. "Okay, that's true, but I swear I'm not up to anything bad!" She stopped and narrowed her eyes. "Oh, wow, this is a nice spell you have here."

"Kalise is very good at her job," Vivilene said, amused. She wasn't sure what she'd expected from this encounter, but this wasn't quite it. "Do tell me more about what you _are_ up to, then."

"I came here to get the amulet back from him." The other woman's words were slow at first. "The man who attacked you—he's one of the sorcerers from Aorlind, the sketchy ones that were bothering you the other day. He's trying to do something with the amulet." Her speech grew faster and somewhat frantic. "I don't know what his plans are for sure, but I need to get it back from him before he does any damage. Because it needs to go back to the university before anyone finds out it's missing, but also because he's obviously trying to hurt you in some way, which pisses me off because you seem like a nice person and don't deserve whatever it is. And my familiar thinks I have a crush on you."

Her eyes widened again and she clamped a paw over her cat mouth. But her voice was coming from a spell, not true speech, so it didn't affect anything. "Sorry, I didn't mean to say that last part! Why the he—heck I did say that?"

Vivilene did her best to restrain her laughter; it had been ages since someone had spoken to her as though she was a normal person, and not a princess or young queen, and it was honestly delightful. But she didn't want to make obviously flustered woman feel any worse. "My apologies. I wasn't sure how forthcoming you would be, so there's a small compulsion spell mixed in with the speech spell. It makes one inclined to say more than they normally would." She considered what the woman had said. "What is this amulet you that you need to take back from him?"

"The Amulet of Tinasra, a relic from the university. I'm a student there. They keep it in restricted storage, but I managed to steal it. Uh." Her ears flatted against her head. "I mean borrow, borrow it! I really just wanted to borrow it! But then that _asshole_ randomly warped into my apartment, turned me into a cat, and stole it."

"Turned you into a cat?" That was more than she'd thought either of the Aorlind sorcerers were capable of. "Shapeshifting an unwilling subject is a highly illegal spell."

"It wasn't a spell, it was the amulet. That's what it does, apparently—it switches people's bodies. Or switches people's bodies with their familiars', in this case."

"So, you stole this very powerful amulet from the university—"

"Borrowed," the woman insisted.

"—had it 'borrowed' from you in turn, and now the culprit is running loose in my palace with an ancient magical artifact that he intends to use against me. Does that about sum it up?"

The woman's voice sounded a bit guilty now. "Well, I wouldn't have said it like that. But yes." Her next words were more serious. "I think he wants to try to switch bodies with you, so that he can have 'you' agree to the treaty or whatever it was they wanted you to agree to."

The new trade agreement that Aorlind delegation had been pushing for. It was a logical conclusion to draw, knowing what kind of power he had at his disposal.

Vivilene tapped her mouth with her finger as she considered what to do with this new information. "I think that for the moment, we'd both be better off working together to apprehend this man and retrieve the amulet. We can address the theft of university property once that's sorted out."

"That sounds good to me. And, uh, I am sorry about all this. It was a stupid idea to steal it in the first place, I really didn't mean to drag you into anything."

"I'm sure you meant no harm." Truly, she didn't. Her instincts about the cat being suspicious hadn't been wrong, but the woman seemed genuine about not wanting to cause any harm to Vivilene, and her friendly behavior as a cat seemed to be just that, friendly. She didn't even seem to have any political interest in Vivilene's position, she simply…was interested in her as a person? That happened so rarely that Vivilene wasn't even quite sure how to respond to it.

Well. They would deal with it later.

"If we're going to be working together now, perhaps you could tell me your name?"

"Oh, right!" She gave a little bow by stretching out her front paws. "My name is Andriana Lightwind, but you can just call me Andry."

"It's nice to meet you, Andry."

There was a knock on the door to the study, and Delia's voice came from beyond it. "Your Majesty? They've captured the attacker."

* * *

The instant they left the queen's wing, Zephyr's voice popped back into Andry's head. <Andry, I seriously need you to tell me what the _hell_ is going on over there.>

<Oh geez, sorry! I hadn't realized we were cut off for so long.> She quickly brough Zephyr up to speed as she followed the queen and her guards through the hallways to the room the sorcerer had been brought to for questioning. The others were walking slowly enough that she could keep up, but she had to admit she was a bit sad the queen wasn't carrying her this time.

<Well,> Zephyr said, as they arrived at the room and Andry finished her explanation, 

<Not _completely_ by accident!> she grumbled.

There were more guards inside the room, standing next to a man restrained in a chair. Without his hooded cloak on, it was easy to see that he was indeed one of the sorcerers from the Aorlind delegation. The amulet was around his neck, the emerald at its center twinkling on his chest.

One of the guards spoke up as they entered and said, "Your Majesty, he's in position of what appears to be a powerful magical artifact. We weren't sure if it was safe to remove it from his person."

The queen glanced down at Andry. "Is it?"

<It should be fine, shouldn't it?>

<The amulet didn't have any of its own protections before, > Zephyr said. 

<That's your answer to everything, isn't it.> Andry hopped up on the table that was between them and the sorcerer, and walked over to his side of it to sniff at the amulet. She immediately sneezed. <Ugh, I never want to smell mandrake root again.>

<Doesn't smell like he put any other magic on it, though.>

<Nope.> Andry grabbed the chain of the amulet with her teeth and yanked it off of his neck.

"You again," the sorcerer said, glaring at her. "I have to say, you're much more enterprising than I thought you would be."

She hissed at him, then trotted back over to the other side of the table, where Vivilene had taken a seat and set out that strange disc again. They'd thought it would be better if Andry had a way to participate in the questioning, and the disc would do the job as long she didn't let the compulsion part of the spell get away from her too much. Andry wanted to talk to the sorcerer who'd designed this thing; from what she'd seen of the inscriptions, it was really well done.

While Andry settled herself on the disc, the queen set another magical device on the table. It looked like a large round stone that had been chopped in half, and the flat half was covered in inscriptions, just like the disc. The queen turned the flat side to face the man, then activated a sigil on the other side of the device. This time, not only did the inscriptions light up, but the words were projected in light onto the man as well.

<Is that a truth spell?> Zephyr sounded impressed. <Nice.>

"So," the queen said to the man, "your name is Irdas, is it not? From the Aorlind trade delegation?"

"Trade delegation." The man—Irdas—laughed. "You think that's all this was."

The queen fixed him with a sharp glare. "I think no such thing. You clearly had other plans here, and if you speak up about them now, I may be more inclined to be merciful when it comes time for your sentencing."

"Oh, please, like I believe that." He grimaced, like he was struggling not to speak, and after a long moment he finally said, "I'm a member of the Liberation Initiative in Aorlind. I wanted to make you agree to our little change in the agreement to destabilize that bastard Ardhil's reign."

"The Liberation Initiative?" The queen sat back in her chair. "Ah, yes, King Ardhil did mention that to me before. Something about former nobles who had their assets redistributed when he began his rule, and were bitter about losing their prestige."

Irdas scowled in a way that made Andry think the queen had hit the nail right on the head. "You wouldn't know anything about it."

"Oh, I'm sure." The queen didn't press him further. "So for this initiative of yours, you stole the amulet from my new friend here—" she indicated Andry "—and tried to use it to make me go along with your plans."

He let out a bark of laughter. "I didn't steal it from her. She stole it for me in the first place."

"What?!" Andry couldn't resist speaking up. "I've never met you before in my life!"

Irdas grinned nastily. He seemed perfectly happy to talk about this topic, truth spell or no. Probably the sort of asshole to likes to gloat in front of an audience. "No, you haven't. But I've seen you before, in the university library, staring longingly at that stupid amulet. It took so little effort to implant the idea to steal it into your head."

"You did _what_?!"

"Honestly, I'm impressed you pulled it off all on your own. I just wanted you for access, but you were surprisingly competent for a university lapdog." He chuckled. "Or lapcat, I should say."

Andry growled at him, and the queen placed a gentle but firm hand on her back. "Now, now." She turned her gaze back to Irdas. "So, in addition to trying to threaten the sovereignty of both Celetheren and Aorlind, you also admit to non-consensually manipulating someone into performing illegal actions."

"Sure, why not. Doesn't matter much compared to the other one, does it?"

Well, it mattered rather a lot to Andry. But the queen just nodded. "True enough." She motioned to the guards. "I think I've heard all I need to hear for the moment. Take him away, and we'll sort out the rest when it's daylight."

* * *

Vivilene let Andry sleep in her parlor overnight—apparently she'd been sleeping outside for the past few days, the poor dear—and the next day, they handled the matter of the amulet.

Vivilene had thought about just sending it back to the university with Andry, so she could get herself and her familiar sorted out and then sneak it back into the archives, but she couldn't go through with it in good conscience. Someone stealing an artifact from their archives to threaten a foreign queen was a serious affair, and she needed to formally report it to the university so they could take better precautions in the future. Andry had agreed, reluctantly.

On the other hand, she saw no need to delay returning Andry to her own body. In the morning, she told Kalise about the events of the previous night, and her sorcerer had agreed to assist. She spoke to Irdas again, who grudgingly told her the incantation to activate the amulet. Andry hadn't recognized it, but Kalise identified it as an old form of Elven that was occasionally used in formal religious ceremonies.

The simplest option would be to bring her familiar—Zephyr, she believed it was—to the palace and used the same incantation to switch them back. However, they would have had to wait for her to arrive, and Andry had been intrigued by the idea of trying to modify the incantation to work remotely. Vivilene was fairly certain Andry just wanted an excuse to pick Kalise's brain about spellcasting, but Kalise had been interested in the idea as well, and the two of them happily spent several hours together in Vivilene's study, pouring over some spellbooks Kalise had brought and arguing about pronunciation. Vivilene just sat back in her chair and watched them, entertained by the spectacle.

Eventually, they declared their new incantation as complete as they could make it, and it was time to test it out.

Andry stood in the center of the room, with Kalise off to the side. Kalise held the amulet aloft and began chanting the words, and after a moment the emerald began to flicker with a green light. The light grew stronger as she continued the incantation, until it poured out of the amulet and engulfed Andry with a blinding flash.

When the light cleared, there was no longer a cat standing there, but a human woman. She had the same gleaming silver eyes as her cat form, but now they were paired with messy red hair, pale skin covered in freckles, and an adorable little nose. Vivilene had never been very good at estimating human ages, but she seemed about the right age for a graduate-level student at the university, and had the same jittery energy about her as other students Vivilene had met.

"Oh," Andry said, and it was almost odd at this point to hear the same voice coming from someone who wasn't a cat. "Oh wow, it worked, and now that I actually have clothes again I feel really underdressed."

Vivilene had hardly noticed her attire, if she was being honest. It was similar to other casual wear she'd seen humans in before—less formal and Vivilene or Kalise's attire, and it certainly wouldn't appropriate for the royal court, but she could hardly see why it mattered. "I think you look lovely."

"O-Oh." Two spots of pink appeared on Andry's cheeks, making her freckles stand out even more. "Thank you."

Kalise was giggling and trying to hide it by covering her mouth with her hand. Vivilene wasn't quite sure why.

"Um, Ms. Queen? Your Highness? Is that right?"

Maybe that was why. It was rather adorable. Vivilene smiled at her encouragingly. "You can call me Vivilene, if you'd like."

"Vivilene, then. Uh, I know the whole amulet thing is sorted out now, but would it be okay if I maybe came back sometime to say hi?"

The smile on Vivilene's face broadened, and the words came out before she even had a chance to think about them. "Yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea."


End file.
